In the fall of 1993, I attended one of Dr. Deming's last four-day seminars in Richmond, Virginia. Out of idle curiosity, I bought a copy of Mind and the World Order at the bookstall.

That evening in my hotel, I struggled to the end of the first chapter, with a dawning realisation that although all the words were in English, my comprehension was zero; I wasn't even sure what the book was about! This experience was repeated on the 'plane back to London.

Convinced that this book was one of the keys to an understanding of Shewhart and Deming, I put it aside to spend some time to brush up on philosophy and American history, before returning to the tedious task of unpicking Mind and the World Order, and summarising the basics of Lewis' philosophy - although the 'one-pager' has eluded me.

Mind and the World Order is certainly a difficult book; he uses arcane language, some ordinary words, (analytic, synthetic, for example), have specific philosophical meanings, the book is badly structured and he tests every step with detailed reference to other philosophical schools. But, maybe the biggest hurdle for someone with a limited knowledge of philosophy is that there is no easy entry into the book; the first chapter is a concentrated 'tour d'horizon' of the philosophical method, and is definitely not user-friendly. Partly, this explains my initial problems, (although ignorance was more significant).

Dr. Deming was well aware of this, in his reference to Mind and the World Order, in TNE, he advises the reader not to start at page 1, the best place to start is page 36 and an overview can be obtained from chapters 2,3,5 and 8.

However, for people with more sense than to spend five years working on the philosophy of C I Lewis, I have made my basic material available. It consists of three papers.

1. A page by page annotation of Mind and the World Order. Intended for the serious student who wishes to use it as a basis for further investigation of epistemology or the philosophy of science. The basic paragraph structure of Mind and the World Order has been retained, and the amount of interpretation is kept to a minimum to ensure we keep close to Lewis's original thinking. The side column of the annotation provides links to, and explanations of, some of the philosophical concepts used by Lewis. No attempt is made to provide a definition of the philosophical terms used by Lewis. ( detail.pdf ).

2. A summary of the individual chapters of Mind and the World Order. Most of the basic paragraph structure has been retained, although this was not always possible. A certain amount of interpretation and re- arrangement has been used to make the structure of Lewis's argument clear. Lewis tends to use complicated philosophical language, an attempt has been made to present his arguments in clear up-to data English - this proved to be a challenging task ! (summaries.pdf).

3. The Influence of C I Lewis of Shewhart and Deming Should be of most immediate interest to the Deming community. It picks out the main themes in Mind and the World Order, and demonstrates how these themes relate to the core teachings of Shewhart and Deming. This is backed up by two appendices;

APPENDIX 1 sets out a the basic philosophy of C I Lewis through a concise summary of Mind and the World Order, in five pages it is the closest I could get to a 'one pager'.

APPENDIX 2 provides a background to the basic elements in two strands in the epistemology of western philosophy; deductive rationalism, and inductive pragmatism. This represents a convenient way of pulling together the elements that were current at the end of the nineteenth century, and which would have been influenced Lewis in developing a philosophy that explains the development of modern science.

Acknowledgements:

• MIT/CAES for the use of their Deming image.
• SPC Press for the use of their Deming background image.
• Clemson University for the use of their CQI server and support.
• Del Kimbler for his technical support for the DEN.

 This page was created by Jim Clauson on 05OCT97 and last updated 20JUL99.

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